Does Luspatercept Reduce Health Care Systems’ Resource Utilization Burden in MDS?

In a series of roundtable discussions, an expert panel moderated by Jamile Shammo, MD, of Northwestern University, explored current issues in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) care. The panel included David Swoboda, MD, of Tampa General Hospital; Saeed Sadeghi, MD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine; and Christopher Benton, MD, of Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers.

In this segment, the panel considered a seven-year US retrospective claims database study that compared health care resource utilization in MDS treatment using luspatercept versus erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs). The study’s data suggested utilization was lower with the former.

Dr. Sadeghi and Dr. Swoboda commented that reduced utilization is always desirable to lessen strain on the health care system. Moreover, the study’s results underscore that luspatercept brings a marked improvement to patients’ quality of life compared with ESAs.

Dr. Benton agreed that the study findings support the conclusion that luspatercept leads to reduced health care resource utilization for MDS. However, he expressed caution about the limited size of the study and the need to scrutinize the data.

“I’m just more critical of claims data; I think it’s always important to actually assay these things on the trials themselves,” explained Dr. Benton. “And if you can look at cost, or when you look at transfusion need and can directly correlate that over to cost, I think that is the strongest data.”